Extending route 'not a simple task': Governors Bay bus advocates want action

Otago Daily Times

19-05-2025

Help us Vicky!
That's the plea to Environment Canterbury councillor Vicky Southworth from Governors Bay residents fighting for a bus service.
Governors Bay is in Southworth's catchment, but some are questioning her commitment to the area and not pushing enough for a bus route.
The community continues to lobby ECan for a long-awaited bus route extension.
'I haven't met her to be quite honest,' said Governors Bay resident and advocate for the extension, John Thacker.
'I just feel that the (ECan) council is not listening. I think she should be coming to the community and saying what's going to happen and what needs to happen,' he said.
Governors Bay Community Association chair John Bannock also said he had never met Southworth.
'Haven't heard from her, haven't seen her,' he said.
The community has been fighting for a bus route since it was axed after the 2011 earthquake.
'If it had been pushed it would have gone ahead,' Bannock said of what he believes is a lack of interest from ECan.
Southworth told Bay Harbour News : 'I haven't been as connected with the community specifically in Governors Bay as I perhaps should have been. I don't think anybody's been directly in contact with me to push it.'
She said she stays in communication with Banks Peninsula Ward city councillor Tyrone Fields on the issue.
Southworth said she has kept the bus route on the radar of ECan staff, but it was 'sitting in a big pot of things people want to see changed'.
'Public transport is a tough space to get any progress on at the moment, we can't even progress the things we've got support for let alone add new things in,' she said.
Fields, Thacker and Otororimo Hotel owner Jeremy Dyer made a submission for the bus extension at the ECan annual draft plan hearings.
Fields suggested connecting Governors Bay to the No 1 route which finishes in Cashmere or the No 3 route which finishes in Sumner.
Dyer proposed extending the No 8 route which finishes in Rapaki.
'There's maybe 50 people that live in Rapaki, if they come an extra 2km down the road you reach a population of 1000,' he said.
'It's about fairness and equity for a considerable portion of Christchurch ratepayers that have done without public transport for a long time.'
Said Fields: 'Whatever route ECan decide to go with, it will be the most spectacular bus ride in the world.'
He said ECan was supportive of the extension and hopes it will get 'serious analysis.'
But Southworth said adding Governors Bay to the No 8 route is not as simple as it seems.
'To extend any individual trip to Governors Bay would require a full reset of the route 8 timetable.
'Costing this change is not a simple task and would require a full route review to determine the operational impact and overall cost implication,' she said.
The ECan public transport team will review public transport access to Governors Bay as part of a network review for greater Christchurch for completion in December next year.
Said Southworth: 'We will work with communities to ensure we understand their needs, and explore options, noting Environment Canterbury will never be able to service all areas and every journey.
'We hear and acknowledge the frustration of communities regarding access to public transport and the speed of network improvements, the reality is that we are working in a very constrained environment with limited resources including funding.
'Staff are focused on delivering the Public Transport Futures programme approved through the Long Term Plan 2024/27 and trying to identify any opportunities to make network improvements, however small,' she said.
If a bus route extends to Governors Bay it will come at a cost. Ratepayers would pay a public transport rate of $36.72 per $100,000 capital value of their property.
If ECan decides to prioritise the bus extension, a public consultation process will need to take place to gauge community support for a public transport rate before it is considered for the next annual plan, said Southworth.
'I really hope that Governors Bay as a community recognise its value, but that's not necessarily the case.'
Thacker thinks it is fair the community pays a rate for a bus route.
'We're all a part of Christchurch and we all pay for things we don't fully use,' he said.